The Man Who Doesn't Make Mistakes
by roadkillAB
Summary: Leading the Avengers is hard and when the director of S.H.I.E.L.D is killed, it shakes up Earth's Mightiest Heroes like few things have in their lives. A new supervillain team is rising and they find themselves having to ask people they never saw themselves asking for help. If this wasn't hard enough to deal with, Captain America is falling in love again whether he likes it or not.
1. Chapter 1

Nick Fury was dead. Really dead. Stabbed right through the heart, but death was no stranger to me. I had been around it my whole life.

When my best friend fell off that helicopter I told myself I wouldn't let anyone else die because of something I did. I guess I broke that promise.

I had watched Natasha as she had wept over his broken body. I had seen something in her eyes that awful day. She didn't say the words but I saw them, " _How could you let this happen? How could you let us down like this?"_ Tony pretended he wasn't affected but we all knew. He was probably thinking the same thing. They all were.

It's probably a good thing that I can't get drunk because right now I would be _wasted._

Fury was killed by a rogue mutant who called herself Strike. She had an entire posse of followers. we were winning then she showed up in the helicarrier, the last place we thought she'd be. Plunged a knife through him. She should have lost the fight. I was distracted by what her crew was attacking. I thought that S.H.I.E.L.D could hold her off. That was my mistake. One of those things that so many people didn't think I was capable of making.

The death was five weeks ago. This was the first Avengers' meeting in over a month and I'll admit it, I was nervous about how the team would react to seeing me again. Yes. We haven't seen one another in five weeks. I missed them. Actually _missed_ them even if it meant they were going to tear me apart in there.

For a long time, Avengers' Tower had been home to me. Now stepping inside the foreboding column of steel and glass was like turning myself into prison. Of course I was the last one in. It wasn't too hard to figure out they were just talking about me. All my friends, the people I cared about the most sitting at that table where we had made countless decisions and battle plans.

"Hi, guys." I said with a weak, grim smile.

They barely acknowledged. I was surprised that Tony and Thor had showed up. I sat down slowly. Bruce's eyes never left me. I couldn't help imagining myself being thrashed like a ragdoll by that green, raging monstrosity inside of him.

I spoke first which was probably not a good idea, "I know it's been a while and nothing's really . . . normal anymore." I paused. "No amount of apologizing or killing or grudges is going to bring him back."

I didn't need to say the name. They all knew. "Fury died believing in the Avengers. He's the one who brought us together! All we can do is respect what he left behind. Keep up the job he gave us. The mission he taught us to believe in."

They were expecting me to give some rousing speech. I'd probably end up doing that anyway. That's not what I meant to do but name one thing that happened exactly how the Avengers _meant_ itto happen.

"We can't just give up when it gets like this. People die. It doesn't matter. It doesn't change anything. Look at us. At you! We're Earth's Mightiest Heroes. We have a promise to uphold. This planet isn't just our home. It's our responsibility." I hadn't realized that until I said it.

The team seemed to agree, nodding their expressions grave. The news of what had happened on the helicarrier had settled on my namesake country like a rainstorm. S.H.I.E.L.D hadn't even tried to try to confidentiate the files concerning Fury's death. The agents had known that the data couldn't be guarded. It was one of those things that people just . . . knew. Whether or not he would be missed by those outside of the circle was superfluous. It didn't matter. "I don't blame you, Steve." Bruce stated, quietly.

I blinked. Was it that obvious that I thought he blamed me? "You've been acting edgy since you walked in here. And everyone else picked up on it too." he said as if he read my mind.

"I do not see why it should be your burden to bear. If anything we should be looking to strike the mutant-witch down." said Thor raising his fist to emphasize his words.

There was a chorus of enthusiastic agreements. "Of course we want to take down Strike. That's obvious. And I don't get where you got the idea that it was you're fault in the first place. It sounds like you blame yourself more than we blame you." Natasha's words were truthful and confident.

I wasn't showing how relieved I actually was but I could feel it in my pounding heart. The team would stay together and they were still my closest allies. "We're gonna get this chick and you're gonna lead us the whole way." chipped in Sam "Falcon" Wilson.

"Nick Fury needs avenging and we're the Avengers." I said.

All the memories I'd made with these six amazing individuals. I had trusted Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Bruce Banner, Thor, Wanda Maximoff, James Rhodes, and Sam Wilson with my life. I remembered looking into Barton's eyes during the battle of Loki, as it was so-named, and seeing nothing but malice during his possession. It had killed me to fight a teammate even if we were just forming a team bond. Of course that was a long time ago and we knew each other better now.

I felt a strange protective sensation over them. One I started to feel shortly after I became heir commander. I have to be careful though so they don't think I think them vulnerable. I had only felt it with one other person. My only lover who is now dead. Just like the director of S.H.I.E.l.D.


	2. We're The Avengers I think

I sometimes still marvel at how much has changed in those seventy years. Not to mention this city. Something was wrong in this beautiful empire though. I could feel it. When you've been fighting for long enough, you start to just _know_ when you're going to need to fight again. When something bad is going to happen.

Then I saw a woman with dark hair tied up and wearing a hood. She looked suspicious. She kept her head down and I couldn't help pursuing her. Something was about to happen. was she wired? some kind of psycho path willing to pay with her life for her revenge?

Maybe it was just paranoia but I'd come to trust my instincts throughout the years. Heroes don't usually have to go looking for trouble it just finds them anyway. I was afraid this was just my mind toying with me, that tragedy had rattled me more than I thought it did. If I'm vulnerable, my team's vulnerable, and if we're vulnerable so is the entire planet. I grabbed the woman's shoulder and she bolted.

She must be an amateur. No fully trained soldier or operative would run that fast. She knew who I was and something told me she wasn't on my side. (she kind of just proved it.) At this point we were involved in a chase, but I knew I was faster. I tripped her and pinned her down. She kicked me in the head. A jarring blow but not enough to stop me. I blocked her punch and landed one of my own. I hated fighting women but she wasn't giving me much choice.

The woman had confirmed she was my enemy and that she was worthy of suspicion. Fighting, she tired out faster. She elbowed me in the stomach, I punched, she dodged. I grappled her shoulders and threw her onto the asphalt. Fear flashed in her eyes. we had gone from trading blows to her striking one blow for every four of mine.

"Stay Down." I panted, even though it didn't look like she was going anywhere.

"Who do you work for?" I demanded.

"who do you? Or do heroes answer to no one?" The enemy laughed. I watched her bite down on a pill which instantly began frothing in her mouth. I had seen this before. Her mouth filled with white foam like rabies. She gagged, eyes bulging as she choked out her last words: "Hail Hydra."

Then she gasped and went limp. I'd seen that before. I didn't even bother checking to see if she was breathing. I knew she was dead. I puilled back her jacket to reveal a nine armed skull of scarlet color. The Hydra symbol. Hydra was a long time enemy of mine and was a German terrorist organization which had been around since the early 1940s. They were led by an evil man known as Red-Skull.

I thought I had defeated Red-Skull decades ago. I was stupid to think they would actually be dead. Are Hydra just continuing the legacy or is there a chance that Red-Skull could still be alive more vengeful than ever before?

 _"What makes you so special?"_ he had once asked me in that face-off. Right before Bucky . . . died. That's not even the right term. No . . . actually it is. Yes Buchanan Barnes died that day. The winter Soldier is all that's left of him.

Everyone wants to be a superhero. I can't imagine why.


End file.
